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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Received my new QHY23M on May 22,2014 and finally had a chance to use it over the weekend. I started on M27, M57 & M16 on the 24th and added subs on the 25th.

M27 The Dumbbell Nebula

3x600s Luminance

3x600 Red

3x600 Green

3x600 Blue

6x600 Ha (2x2 bin)

Camera: QHY23M
Telescope: Celestron 11" Edge HD @ F/7
Mount: CGEM-DX
This was my first target, I figured the camera/telescope combination would produce a good sized image..... I wasn't disappointed. I'm currently limited to 10 minute subs, so I binned the Ha. I'm slowly getting used to the new CGEM-DX mount.
This was the Dumbbell Nebula taken with my 102mm refractor and QHY9M last year. Quite the difference in field of view!

M16 The Eagle Nebula

The Eagle Nebula is one of my favorite targets. Due to it's location in the sky and where I decided to set up my equipment, I only had about an hour to image it. So again I binned the subs and shot a single exposure through each of the three narrowband filters.

Ha- 1x600(2x2 bin)

OIII- 1x600(2x2 bin)

SII- 1x600(2x2 bin)

Camera: QHY23M
Telescope: Celestron 11" Edge HD @ F/7
Mount: CGEM-DX

M57 The Ring Nebula

3x300 Red

3x300 Green

3x300 Blue

4x600 Ha (2x2 bin)

Camera: QHY23M

Telescope: Celestron 11" Edge HD @ F/7

Mount: CGEM-DX

I managed to capture some of the outer shell of this ancient supernova explosion. This image far exceeds anything I"ve ever captured before in detail and especially, object size. Below is M57 taken last year with the 102mm and QHY9M.

All of these images need more sub-exposures and attention, I was just excited about "first light" with the QHY23M. Even despite the lack of enough sub frames in all of these images, I'm quite happy with the QHY23 so far. None of the above images have dark frames applied, yet noise is almost non-existent. The sensitivity is amazing. The only problems I had were with the mount, mostly operator error, as I'm slowly learning how to handle a longer focal length. I can't wait until the next clear night!

About My Hobby

As far back as I can remember I've always had an interest in Astronomy. I remember having a dept. store reflector telescope when I was 5 or 6. I "upgraded" to a Jason Enterprises 60mm refractor at age 10. I spotted and observed Saturn with this telescope. Through my teens and early twenties the hobby took a backseat to other interests. It was rekindled in my late twenties, with several major astronomical events (Hale Bopp,Shumaker-Levy hitting Jupiter,etc.) This is when I bought my 1st real telescope, a 8" Meade SCT LX-50. The first object I saw was M27 the Dumbbell Nebula. As my observing continued, I really wanted to share what I was seeing with friends & family. I bought a SLR 35mm pentax camera(film) and the adapters for my SCT. I would spend hours trained on a guide star with an "off-axis guider", trying to keep the star centered. After I filled up a roll of film I would take it to the local 1-hour photo and explain what the pictures were about. Only 1 or 2 photos from each roll were ever decent. I did this for about 1 year. Again Astronomy took a backseat until late in 2011. I dusted the SCT off and started visual observations again. After some research I decided to buy a Canon T3i and I started Astrophotography again. Shortly I found that Astrophotography had really advanced. Images could be shortened and "stacked" producing better results than a single image with film. No longer did I have to stare at a guide star for hours, this can be done by computer! I purchased Orion's StarShoot Autoguider and my imaging really took off. I haven't slept right since then and have made many upgrades. Recently I purchased a CCD camera dedicated to Astrophotography.(QHY9M) All of the images on my blog were taken with this camera unless noted otherwise.I have an older website with some of my earlier DSLR work:https://sites.google.com/site/astrochuck123/